It’s close to noon Thursday and the kitchen inside Cafe Standard — Hawaii Community College’s student-run, short-order restaurant — is bustling.
Jericho Tobin, a second-year culinary arts student, tosses together his self-created Thai salad — a sizzling plate of lollo rosso lettuce, grilled shrimp, shallots, roasted peanuts, cilantro and basil, topped with a spoonful of homemade kabocha squash-and-curry dressing.
“It’s kind of like an inverted vinaigrette,” the 23-year-old Tobin explains, as he drizzles the dressing over his creation and proudly pushes it over the counter.
Nearby, another student adorned in a white chef’s uniform tosses tomatoes onto a fattoush salad. And a third student-chef sprinkles cucumbers as the finishing touches on a bahn mi chicken sandwich.
These are just a few of the leafy greens and vegetables used to create Cafe Standard’s menu items, complex enough to find at any high-end Hilo eatery.
But at most restaurants in Hawaii, the vast majority of those vegetables are shipped from the mainland. Here, the opposite is true — up to 90 percent of Cafe Standard greens are grown about 4 miles away in greenhouses at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Agriculture Farm in Panaewa.
It’s all part of a “farm-to-table” partnership between HCC’s agriculture and culinary arts programs. The collaboration, which began two years ago, means much of the produce culinary students use to prepare meals at Cafe Standard, the campus cafeteria and its fine dining restaurant is grown locally at the farm by HCC’s agriculture students.
The concept is unique — instructors say no other UH campus in the state features a culinary-ag partnership like it. But they believe it could be easily replicated at other schools.
Ultimately, they say it shows students in both programs ways to support the local community and become more food independent — particularly in a state where up to 90 percent of food is imported from the mainland.
“Eventually, (culinary students) will get to that point in their career where they’re going to be in charge of a kitchen and going to think ‘Do I buy this case of mainland potatoes which might be cheaper? Or do I buy the local case?’” said culinary instructor Brian Hirata.
“And hopefully, all this collaboration will kind of stick with them and they’ll think, ‘I’ll stick with the local because it’s a better product, it’s better for the community and it’s more sustainable.’”
The state has taken measures aimed at increasing its food independence. For example, in September, Gov. David Ige pledged at an international conservation conference to double local food production in the state by 2030.
The University of Hawaii at Hilo also features a program called “Local First” in which up to 65 percent of food served at its campus dining halls is locally grown.
Lew Nakamura, HCC agriculture instructor, said it’s unlikely Hawaii would ever see the majority of its food produced locally, mainly because of densely populated places on Oahu.
But he thinks each island can become more self-sufficient — “grow for your own island … might be the model,” he said, and HCC’s partnership demonstrates that.
In the future, the agriculture and culinary programs want to sync their programs even more, Nakamura added, so that harvest is closely tied to culinary menu offerings.
“We are just lucky we have a good culinary program willing to take (our product),” Nakamura said. And we’re pretty confident the students can produce. As long as we can get someone willing to accept it. And the feedback we’ve gotten on this program everything is amazing. I don’t see why other (culinary and agriculture) programs can’t get into it.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
